George M. Lightfoot

A professor of Latin at Howard University for 48 years, George M. Lightfoot was editor of The Howard University Record, founder of the university’s Classics Club, and author of numerous articles on the Roman Classics, classical pedagogy, and civil rights.

Lightfoot graduated from the Howard Academy (Howard University’s preparatory school) in 1887, and received an A.B. from Williams College (1891) and an M.A. from Catholic University (1922). He purchased the house as investment property in approximately 1917, and lived here from 1931 until his death in 1947. Lightfoot held regular salons in this home for intellectuals of African descent; attendees included Carter G. Woodson, W.E.B. DuBois, Arthur Schomberg, Ralph Bunche, and Alain Locke.

Lightfoot is remembered with a scholarship at Howard University in his name.